


Partners

by MamaFriesmeal



Category: Kamen Rider W (Double)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-21
Updated: 2017-10-21
Packaged: 2019-01-20 13:43:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12434076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MamaFriesmeal/pseuds/MamaFriesmeal
Summary: If things had gone a little differently after Begins Night...





	1. Take Him and Go

"Take him and go!!!"

Shoutarou had hesitated as the white suit jacket began to stain red. Then Narumi Soukichi shouted the order a second time. Shoutarou grabbed the younger boy's arm and ran. What was his name again? He couldn't remember if the Boss had ever said. The boy ran with him until the halls grew quiet and then dug in his is heels to stop Shoutarou. "Don't you want to fight?" Wide eyes looked up at him, hands fidgeting with the case he carried. Hidari Shoutarou frowned and grabbed the boy's arm again.

"Boss said we have to get out. We're getting out." Shoutarou laid it out in a tone he hoped was as commanding as the detective he idolized. The same one risking his life so that they could get out safely. He tugged the boy forward again, resuming the quick pace.

"He had been shot more than once. What if he dies?" Shoutarou faltered for an instant at the question, then inhaled, let it out, and continued pushing forward.

"Then he'd haunt me for the rest of my damn life for not getting you out like he told me to. Now come on." Shoutarou hissed. The boy was quiet the rest of the way. Out through the dark back halls, out into the cold night air. Fall had skipped the pleasant, warm stage and was on a steady decline toward the cold of winter. He glanced back at the boy -- he had to be just barely sixteen if even that -- and the thin white linen he wore. No shoes or even socks. Would he be warm enough? Shoutarou didn't have anything to offer him. He simply pressed on.


	2. Something There

Within three hours they had made it back to the agency via a complicated route involving nearly every minimally lit back road in Fuuto. Shoutarou let them in through the garage he had never been allowed to enter. His boss had always claimed it was haunted -- Which sounded ridiculous but he was so adamant about it that Shoutarou couldn't help believing it. -- but it seemed safer than going in the front and risk someone catching them. He felt the boy tense again, felt him dig in his heels to pull Shoutarou back. 

"Someone's here." The boy spoke quietly, barely above a whisper, so that only Shoutarou could hear. A chill ran up Shoutarou's spine, but he quickly shook it off.

"Probably just Boss's pet ghost." Shoutarou mumbled sarcastically before taking the boy by the hand and leading him across the garage and up the stairs, past the whiteboards full of odd equations and notes that Shoutarou hardly noticed but the boy was all too aware of, and then out into the agency itself. "You're probably hungry after all of that." He spoke to change the subject as the boy stared over his shoulder into the shadows of the old garage. He thought he that had heard movement, but assumed it was a rat or something and shut the door. Nothing to be afraid of.

Shoutarou deposited the boy on the sofa in the front half of the agency and made his way back to the small kitchen. He turned to call over his shoulder to ask if pancakes and scrambled eggs were all right, since it was nearly all he could make on his own, and jumped as the boy was right behind him. "Geez!!" Shoutarou pressed a hand to his chest, catching his breath, "Don't do that! Go sit down!"

"I want to watch..." The boy murmured, reaching out to hold Shoutarou's sleeve just above the elbow. That was his claim, but Shoutarou just barely caught him glancing toward the door down to the garage again. The boy was scared of whatever he had thought was down there. Maybe there really was a ghost...

Shoutarou took another deep breath and pulled the boy from his sleeve, leading him to the small table in the middle of the back half of the office where he and Narumi usually ate. "Sit. You can watch from here, okay? I don't want to trip over you." The boy just nodded. "Are eggs and pancakes alright? I'm not good at much else." Another nod. Shoutarou gave a small smile and began to cook.


	3. After Nine Days

It had been a week since Shoutarou a had brought the boy home. Nine days, as the boy continued to correct him every time he tried to pretend it had only been the seven "a week" denoted, and still no word from his Boss. Not so much as a call or a note from one of their informants. Nothing. Shoutarou was becoming anxious. He had tried calling, but Narumi's line was off. The boy had spent most of the nine days out in the garage, rearranging it to his liking. He had gone down on the second day and declared that whatever had been there the night before was now gone and had decided to claim the large space as his own. That night, when he hadn’t come up for dinner, Shoutarou had found him curled up on the old black leather couch, fast asleep.

Shoutarou had just dragged the boy upstairs, promising that he could watch him make dinner when the front door to the office opened. Both boys froze as Narumi Soukichi was carried in against the shoulder of a figure in black. It was clear from the shape of the figure’s body that it was a woman, but her face was completely masked and her eyes were hidden behind sunglasses. Her only distinguishing feature was that she was completely unidentifiable. The boy immediately scrambled away from the table, knocking his chair over as he ran to Shoutarou, hiding behind him and gripping the back of his shirt tightly as he peered over the young detective’s shoulder at the woman. She moved to the couch where Shotuarou had set the boy nine days before and lay Narumi there. He simply grinned at her, muttering his thanks. She shook her head at him before rising and turning to Shoutarou and the boy his boss had ordered him to protect. Shotuarou tensed as she extended a hand toward them.

“Raito.”

Shotuarou felt the boy grip his shirt tighter at the word. A name? Was it the boy’s name? Shotuarou looked back at Raito, who was glaring viciously at the woman. They held like that a moment, with Shoutarou caught in the middle, until the woman conceded and lowered her hand, walking past them into the small kitchen. Quietly, as if she had lived there her whole life, she began taking out things in a pattern of motions Shoutarou recognized as the same that his boss followed every morning -- She was going to make coffee. Narumi grunted and pushed himself up. “Fumine, your coffee is terrible. Let me--“

“Soukichi, lay down before I have to come back over there.” Her voice was low, clearly being warped by something, but the threat was still clear on her tone.

Raito continued to cling to Shoutarou as if at any moment the masked woman would turn and try to kill them both. “Such a cruel woman,” Narumi sighed and shifted onto his back again, “At least have Shoutarou do it. You’re still a client.” Shoutarou looked to his boss with clear confusion. They spoke, bickered, as if they had known each other their whole lives.

“I was never just a client and you know it.” She retorted, and Narumi laughed, then coughed. The woman, Fumine he had called her, sighed heavily. “Stay still, stubborn ass. Just because you won’t bleed to death anymore doesn’t mean you’ve recovered.”

Shoutarou gently took Raito by the arm, moving to where his boss was laid out, and sat Raito across from him in one of the chairs before moving to kneel beside the couch. “Boss?” He spoke quietly, as if trying to keep his conversation from the woman on the other side of the wall, “Are you okay? Who is she?”

“The client.” Narumi replied in the same low tone. He chuckled softly as Shoutarou’s eyes widened a bit. “I owe her quite a bit, so I took this case for her. But in the end she was the one who had to save me.”

“...Just like always.” Shoutarou jumped as the woman lightly nudged him aside to help Narumi sit up, handing him the cup of coffee. “Careful now. It’s hot.” Shoutarou simply stared as Fumine sat beside his boss, fretting gently over him in spite of her appearance. Narumi took a sip of the coffee and flinched and the woman shoved him lightly, causing him to laugh.

Shoutarou retreated to stand beside the chair where Raito sat, perfectly still, watching the woman intently. “Are you okay?” Shoutarou asked quietly. Raito reached out to grab his sleeve, again trying to use Shoutarou as a shield against the bizarre woman.  
“  
She’s the one.” Raito hissed quietly, “She was in the garage the night you brought me here.” Shoutarou quickly looked back to the woman still fussing over his boss, attempting to make sure he didn’t spill the coffee. She had been in the garage that night? ...Was she the “Ghost” that Narumi had always warned him about? Was she what his boss had been hiding down there? It made the contents of the garage make sense. It was a space meant for someone to live and work in. But how long had she been down there? He couldn’t remember a time when he hadn’t been warned about not going out to the garage.

Shoutarou pulled a hand through his hair and sighed, offering a hand to help Raito up. "Do you want to go back downstairs for a while?" Shoutarou murmured. Raito quickly took his hand, getting up and hiding behind Shoutarou again with a small nod. Shoutarou let out a sigh and looked to Narumi. "Boss... The kid is getting kind of freaked out so I'm going to take him back downstairs to unwind a bit. We can... discuss the case... when everyone's settled down a bit, right?"


	4. Bitter

The door to the garage clicked shut, and Narumi Soukichi let out a small sigh as he heard Shoutarou cross the room to him. “How is he holding up?” Narumi asked, not looking up from his typewriter. Shoutarou pulled up a chair from one of the nearby tables and frowned over his shoulder at the door, vaguely disguised by the assortment of fedoras hung there.

“Well, he didn’t bite me this time.” Shoutarou grumbled, rubbing his wrist. “He still won’t talk to me though. He just keeps scribbling on the boards and reading his books. I don’t know what’s up with him.” Shoutarou looked back to his mentor, probably the closest person to family he’d ever had, as the man gave a small affirmative grunt. “She was really his mother?”

“She is.” Narumi said quietly, unable to look at Shoutarou. One day he’d have to explain the whole of it to both of them. He’d have to tell them about what had been done to Sonozaki Fumine, about why she’d left her children, and why she’d come to him for help. But… It could wait a while longer. At least until Raito had settled. 

When he didn’t get more of an answer, Shoutarou looked to the door again. “He’s really scared of her. He thinks she was here the night I brought him back.”

“She was.” 

Shoutarou’s shoulders tensed at his boss’s response, and when he didn’t get any further response once again, he rose, “Is she your ghost?” Narumi remained focused on his typing. Shoutarou placed his hands on the desk, leaning forward, trying to get a look at Narumi’s face, “I’ve seen everything that’s down there. How long was she there? I can’t even remember a time when you weren’t warning me not to go down there.”

As Narumi lifted a hand to stop his questions, Shoutarou took a step back. Narumi rose from his chair and rounded his desk, passing Shoutarou to make himself a cup of coffee, “She was here before you were. Sonozaki Fumine is an old friend, and when she came to me for help, I took her in. She’s pulled me out of the fire more times than I can count. I couldn’t turn her away.” His tone was calm and soft in a way it wasn’t usually, but always was when he spoke of Raito’s mother. There was something sad in his voice that Shoutarou didn’t quite understand, something the older man had experienced that Shoutarou hadn’t yet. 

Narumi poured his coffee, and a second cup for Shoutarou, that he knew the boy would suffer through drinking. Narumi knew Shoutarou didn’t like bitter things, but drank the coffee to seem older than he was. Narumi found himself jealous of that sort of youthfulness. He sat at his desk again. "She's like a wounded animal now. But she'll heal, and you'll see the sort of woman she is." Something about the way Narumi smiled over his coffee felt odd to Shoutarou. Maybe it was the fact that his boss was smiling at all.


End file.
